Mpact Of Facebook On Consumer Buying Marketing Essay

Mpact Of Facebook On Consumer bargain foring grocerying Essay at that place has been a noniceable change in the technological developments and innovation in the last few years. Undoubtedly, engine room plays an important part in our lives. roughly of people search on the internet in nearly of their pretend(a) lives much(prenominal) as sending emails, searching for training come more(prenominal) than or less with their family and friends, recital the latest hotfounds and so on. That development in technology reaches antithetic sectors analogous wrinkle brasss, academic sectors, and governmental fields.In condemnation where technology plays a great role in peoples lives, marketers atomic number 18 doing their best to pull back any chance that could bring consumers to their crossings and dishs. At the end of the 19th s at iodine date and the beginning of the 20th century, researchers predicted that the internet would alter the comparisonship between con sumers and trade organization (Lord, 2000 Hamel and Sampler,1998). Ward and his colleagues in 1998 predicted that in the first quarter of the xx first century, the main channel for shopping for most consumers would be the synergetic technologies (Ward et al, 1998). De K atomic number 18-Silver (2000) discusses the same idea that this technology will go with consumers postulate to haggle shops, as it will make it easy for people to buy their start come to the fore any time without going to the actual place for these results. Many business companies that provide serves or physical goods believe that exploitation the electronic resources in their merchandising is vital to their mastery. Porter (2001) urges that if companies insufficiency to remain competitors, they expect to rely on technology. Using technology in trade eachows give aways and companies to act with its customers in individual basis as it provides immediate and quick act without time limitation (All an and Chudry, 2000).One type of technology that people and marketers depend on is mixer networking sites. In these affable sites, people usuall(a)y communicate with each other(a) and during these conversations, they send result messages to each other without nonicing that. The come in of people who uptake these sites argon profit day by day. In the United States around 55.6 million people choose usanced these favorable sited daily in 2009 (Ostrow, 2009). Globally, Facebook, one of the main accessible sites, accounts for 750.000.000 registrations, chitter has 200.000.000 pursual (Qualman, 2011).In business sector, these genial sites play an important role in consumers buy behavior. In these sites, people usually shargon opinion and purplish information near their view on marks they buy and religious operate they accustom (Jones, 2010). Consumers use to recommend a brand or merchandising organization to friends and followers. In some eccentric, fans of a spe cific brands establish a pageboy in these loving sites where they write their opinion astir(predicate) this brand, upload and transfer photos of the product that the brand sell.Investigating the relation between these kindly sites and consumer purchasing behavior is a new trend that encourages researcher to search about. That relation affects two sides, marketers and consumers. For marketers, it swear outs to create a strong traffichip with customers, developing a new idea for new product, and answering common daily inquires from consumers (Dsilva et al, 2011). Moreover, in investigating the effect of these sites on consumers purchasing behavior, some studies shoot been do to find out the relation between these sides. Most of these studies modify that there is a positive relation between kindly sites and consumer purchasing behavior that the majority of people believe in this statements and buy at that by some cases where they rely on these social sites in some stage s in their purchasing exhibit much(prenominal) as searching for information and evaluating their choices (Constantinides and Fountain, 2008). well-disposed media usage is growing rapidly amongst marketing professionals and organisations and fast becoming a new outlet that can potentially be apply to help join on customers interest in a product or service. As it becomes widespread it brings about involving customers and facilitating exchange of information bringing about gear in consumer conduct.Through social media, information, enticing advertisement ar made available to consumers easily watch and read and at the same time allowing consumers to post their own opinions and sacramental manduction it with friends. For many brands, social media appears as a way to reach new customers and to reflect their feelings and this explains the reason for which many companies ar currently working on developing fond Strategies to outline the stage of interactivity that they want to ing est with their customers that will help consumers to make a purchasing determination.Successful firms use consumer attitudes and behaviors to segment markets and design marketing strategies. Today, however, consumer trust in corporations is declining while the influence of online communities on buyer behavior is growing. loving media programmes yield completely changed the nature of the interaction between brands and their customers, directly touching upon the contemporary consumer finis dish up.Laurens (2010) argued that while social media is non the silver bullet that some pundits maintain it to be, it is an extremely important and relatively low cost touch pose that has a direct adjoin on sales and positive joint of mouth and supporting this argument Glynn and David (2009) utter that Companies not combat-readyly savory the social media be missing a huge opportunity of aspect something to consumers intentionally or unintentionally about how willing they ar to mesh on consumers terms. Therefore, its necessary for retailers to come across how social media is affecting current consumers and how they atomic number 18 going to react.During the economic downturn, more and more companies bring in reduced their communion budget but they birth increased expenses for social media by 30%. It is now a priority for big companies but they need overly to change their global marketing strategy. It is also important to reach the remedy customer at the beginning of a social media strategy because opinion leaders, such as bloggers, argon the ultimate key to a brands success (The Conversation Group 2012). As the marketing power of social media grows, it no longer makes sense to treat it as an experiment. harmonize to Tamba (2012) friendly media has a big impact on how people shop. A quarter of all gets of FMCGs are influenced by exposure to one form of social media or another and this proportion is growing. Shoppers are weaving their interaction with social and agile marketing into their everyday lives As a result, big brands are increasing their social media investment. Social media can influence both impulse purchases and repair shopping habits when it comes to FMCGs. The trick is to understand where, when and how customers want to interact with your brand, and with your products. Social marketing for regular purchases is about strengthening and deepening the customers connection with the brand.Impulse buys are also increasingly mediated by social media especially now that so many consumers can access Facebook, chitter and Pinterest from their planetary phones.1.1 relation of Problem.Most often than never, companies do not benefit from social media in a way they should have benefited from it due to their lack of strategic efforts to managing it and survey it success. Through media hypes that emphasis the ease of achieving success with social media, many companies have the believe that what they need to do to achieve success with Facebook is by in force(p) launching Facebook page and such companies get disappointed when they check into no activities occurring on the page and thus they abandon the page. Common mistakes companies make is devoting a little time for social media and measuring it success on whether sense of hearing is conversing or not about their brands on their social media. Nevertheless, companies make mistakes by believing they are in total control of conversations about their companies, brands products or services on social media and they spend heavily on PR to hype their newest hires and new products whereas they forget that social media weapons platform is all about speaking with people but not at people and more of a community of audience that discuss about companies, their products, services or brands in a way they feel they benefit them or do not (Evans 2010).1.2 Purpose of StudyThis research is carried out with the tendency of pass judgment the impact of Facebook on Consumer buying Behaviour in the UK Grocery Market with Tesco Plc as a case muse. This is to determine the effect of social media (Facebook) on the consumer buying deportment of groceries in the UK.1.3. Research QuestionWhat are the impacts of Facebook on consumer buying deportment in the UK Grocery Market?1.4 Research Objectives pursual from the above mellowedlighted aim, the chase objectives have been set to achieve the above aim and followed by the research questions.To identify Facebook usage figs among UK consumers in grocery market. evaluate how Facebook effectively changes consumers attitude towards groceries.Investigating and evaluating the role of Facebook website as influencers on Tesco customers in UK at stages of buying termination-making process.Identify if Facebook is the social medium that has the greatest impact on consumer buying variety of Tesco in UK.Recommendation on how Tesco should use Facebook to encourage consumers to buy their products.1.5 The Signif icance of the ResearchThis research work was undertaken to take a critical case at the impacts of a social media cal conduct Facebook on consumer buying doings in the UK grocery market where Tesco was employ as a case study. This research therefore became imperative to undertake as a result of a noticeably new development in the UK market that aro employ the interest on the issue surrounding Facebook impact on consumer buying behaviour in the UK and a well know ordinary FMCG trading company in UK was chosen as a case study to identify these effects of Facebook on consumer buying flesh in the UK Grocery market.Furthermore, the impact of Facebook on consumer buying pattern in grocery markets has not been looked into by researchers thus sledding a spread to identify whether social media (Facebook) really has a authoritative impact on consumer buying patterns in the grocery market apart form other commodities.Nevertheless, this research has also been undergone due to the keen in terest the researcher has, following up to date on the social media impacts on marketing activities in this 20th century and it cogency to completely erode the traditional administration of marketing communication.1.6. Scope and Limitations of the study.In investigating the impact of Facebook on consumer buying pattern in UK grocery markets, this study was completely exceptional to Facebook which is not the further social media that consumers use to purchase groceries. The research is not relevant to other social media platforms.Furthermore, the case study adopted was only limited to one of the FMCG companies in UK and thus do not provide a sufficient information about the impact of Facebook on the consumer buying pattern in UK grocery markets1.7 OverviewThe overall structure of this research consist of 5 chapters, each dwelling on a specific aspect of the outcome under recapThis first chapter comprises of the introduction, research problem, purpose of the study, research qu estion and objectives of the study. The rational and overview of the proposal have also been covered in this part. The books review covers the chapter 2 of this research. This part reviews critically the impacts of social media on the buying pattern of consumers in the UK grocery markets from scholarly perspective. Conceptual framework also featured in this part of the research.Chapter 3 focuses on the methodology used in the entire research processes. The research method adopted both quantitative using closed questionnaire and qualitative method using case study approach will be adopted to collect selective information (Mixed method).The fourth chapter dealt with the analysis and findings of the research while then fifth chapter focus on summary of conclusion and the implications of this research.CHAPTER 2LITERATURE REVIEW.2.0 IntroductionThe publications review in chapter 2 will provide discussions from published information and an account of what has been published on the topi c of this study. It explains body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge including substantive findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to Impact of Facebook on Consumer buying Behaviour in the UK Grocery Market.In this chapter, various textbooks, articles, journals, blogs, dailies and websites were consulted to obtain related information, thoughts and quotes of various writers, authors and scholars.2.1. Consumer Buying BehaviourIn marketing, deep understanding of the behaviour of marketing is a very important tool for business success. Consumer buying behaviour is all about the determination of how consumers make decisions on the product or service they want to buy and the eventors that are responsible for this decision. According to studies conducted in UK, 56% out of 11,000 new products that are launched by 77 companies in the UK are present after 5 years of new product launch. Also, studies revealed that only 8% of new produ cts concept from 112 leading companies reached that market where 83% where inefficient to meet marketing objectives. Consumer buying behaviour tends to study these reasons why companies need to have a deep understanding of why consumers make the purchase they do and the factors that influence their decision to purchase (Hitesh, 2010). Because consumers are the drivers of marketing, the need to fake well suitable marketing plans that that will critically examine consumer behavioural attributes and needs, life styles and purchase process in order to make a nearly perfect marketing mix decisions. Studying what consumers buy, the reason they buy, the way they buy, time they buy, the location and frequency at which they buy are key things to understand when undertaken the study of consumer behaviour (Hitesh, 2010).Wayne et al., 2008, defined consumer buying behaviour is the reflection of the summation of consumers decisions regarding acquisition, consumption, and disposition of produ cts and services, activities, people, ideas and experiences. Also, Dibb and simkin (2001) defined the buying behaviour of consumers as an act and decision making process of people that are involved purchasing and using products or services for personal or household consumptions. Theoretical approaches have been used by researchers to have an in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour and these approaches have been inbuilt in 3 psychological orientations Reinforcement possible action, Cognitive theory and Freuds psycho-analytical theory (Fill,2006), with the most fashionable and current approach to consumer behaviour out of the 3 approaches been the cognitive theory (Berkman and Gilson, 1986), where cognitive theory states that people use and process information they derived from internal and out-of-door sources to identify problems and make decisions. The major elements sketch by the cognitive theory for problem solving among consumers in their buying behaviour have been per ception, learning, attitudes, and personality (Fill, 2006).Consumer behaviour goes beyond the method by which consumers purchase tangible products like groceries, clothing and automobiles but rather, consumer buying behaviour also involve consumers use of services, experiences, activities, and ideas such as going to see a General Practitioner (GP), signing up for a secondary school screen, donating to charity, voting for politicians, seeing movies featured by certain actors etc. Consumer behaviour was also expressed as activities people get involved in when collecting, utilising and disposing products and services (Blackwell et al.,2001) or environmental factors that are aimed at creating actual behaviour (Jim,2008). Four factors namely psychological core, process of decision making, consumers culture and consumer behaviour outcomes have been identified to affect the buying behaviour of consumers (Wayne et al., 2008) while Haydon (2009) sort factors that affect consumer buying be haviour into 3 group namely external influences (firms marketing effort and consumers culture), internal processes (psychological processes and decision making) and post decision processes. Choices are been made by consumers daily and buying behaviour is said to be influenced by the characteristics (cultural, social and psychological) and the decision process that buyers make (Khursia, 2012). Furthermore, several research have been undertaken to identify the buying behaviour of consumer by dint of social psychology and personality (Ajzen, 1987), marital status and responsibilities (Goldman and Johansson, 1978), and consumer loyalty (Suen and Wei, 2009).2.11 Psychology of buyersPsychology of buyers mustiness(prenominal) be determined by manufacturers finished identification of buyers need when marketing a product to target group of customers. Buyers most often look for sense of safety and belonging, although other customers want to gain self respectfulness in the presence of th eir peers. The perception of a product by buyers must be understood when providing information about the product to buyers as there are possibilities that buyers could interpret information provided by buyers about a product on the basis of their previous beliefs and knowledge, although learning about such product may change behavior of buyers (Jeff 2012).2.12 Behaviour of consumersAlso, buyers could also buy products depending on their personalities and lifestyles. For example individual buyer that seeks to life a healthy lifestyle could go for organic foods while avoiding foods that are sun-tanned. In family situation, buying decisions are often based on what buyers perceived to be best for their family. abstruse cognisance on who makes decisions for family product must be understood by marketers. Among newly weds with no children, purchasing is the product of decision made by husband and wife, while the stay at home parent makes the decision in a family with young children (Je ff 2012).2.13 Characteristics of ConsumerSocial class and culture up to some completion determines types, spirit and quantity of products that buyers buy or use. In clothing, social class may determine the type of clothes buyers buy. finishing also greatly impacts on food where deep-fried food may be easier to sell in the south than in California. The buying process begins with a step where consumers recognise a need, or a unlikeness between what they possess and what they need to buy to change their condition. Also, decision to buy a product can also be based on elements such as packaging, payment methods and the features and of the product (Jeff 2012).Firms Marketing Efforts1. Product2. promotion3. Price4. PlaceThe Consumers Culture1. Religion2. Ethnicity3. Reference Groups4. Social classPsychological Processes1. Motivation2. Perception3. Attitude4. KnowledgeDecision do1. Problem recognition2.Information Search3. Judgement4. DecisionPost -decision Processes1. corrupt2. Post -purchase behaviourFigure 1 Model of Consumer Behaviour2.2 Social mediaSocial media is a set of applications such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook etc built to operate on Web 2.0 platform which enables the creation and sharing of information created by users that are known as user-generated content (Kaplan and Haenlin, 2010). Social media has been expressed to be the new millennium medium of communication across the world with the most popular of all been Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn. For example, Facebook as at June, 2012 was said to have a monthly mobile user of 750 million people and 1 gazillion participating users were estimated to be on Facebook by the end of 2012, thus supporting the believe of many analyst that social media marketing will out rightly replace some forms of traditional marketing such as directing mail (Fuel oil news, 2012). Social network, one of the currently used platforms by social media is said to be a very assorted and big complex concept perceive to which its knowledge require a clear identification of its scope and coverage that forms it boundaries (George, 2008). Tracy (2008) expressed that social media human beings is congenital in the context of communities that are built of people where relations are been developed and nurtured through creation, sharing, engaging and commenting in content. Social media are online tools that provide access to users with identical interest to share information that is referred to as user generated account content while also learning from others, or network in an open process (Stepenson, 2011). According to Smith and z (2011), Social media has been opined to be an effective way of running business other than undecomposed an ordinary marketing tool, requiring both old and new companies to insert new culture of company wide support, systems and incentives where mindset of thinking relationships and not just sales or transaction marketing must be ensured. Social media has been further ex plained by Smith and Zee (2011) to look beyond short term sales but should enable the culture of sharing and listening, channelling information into organisational system that alert companies into negative and positive comments, suggestions, complaints and new ideas that are beneficial for new product development, new advertisements, new discussions and promotions.Business managers are often faced with challenges of exploiting opportunities associated with the increasing availability of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn that is been dominated by 50% users alone in UK. Despite the fact that social media has become a very popular networks that is frequently used by consumers, while organisations are still struggling to understand and indue it to use effectively (Nielsen 2010). However, despite the believe of many about the opportunities inherent in social media, some are still sceptical about its potentials due to an immense uncertainty about how it can be levera ged for a long term profits and returns as well as the ability to identify the fact that return on investment can be attributed to social media marketing efforts (Weinberg and Berger, 2010), Weinberg and David, 2005). Apart from social media exposing consumers to research and purchase considerations, social media has also provided platform through which consumers can advocate for the products and stores they so more than valued and love (Jay, 2012). To gather information, consumers are now relying on social media to decide on which products to buy (Kozinets 2002) and the usage of social media by consumers for brand recognition, information about products and the opinion about product or service provider are most often influenced by the cultural compass of consumers as consumers widely vary in their expectation of product and service quality (Donthu and Yoo 1998).Through social media, companies are offered the opportunities to understand the needs of their consumers and increase th eir take aim of satisfaction through proactive and timely response (Jay, 2012).2.3 Usage pattern of Social media among consumers.No doubt, social media has gone through a significant transformation over years (Mangold and faulds, 2009). This significant transformation of social media and the extent to which consumers rely on social media to make purchasing decision led to the full awareness of the potentials of social media by marketers. Advent of social media has immensely changed the society, influencing consumers behaviour in terms of scanning for information on opposite social media to read other consumers view concerning products or services they want to purchase (Todaro, 2007).The traditional media has been greatly replaced by social networks and the awareness on social media opportunities seems unlimited as millions of Coca-cola fans on Facebook are declaring their love for the brand, most frequently viewed on YouTube been roller babies of Danones water brand Evian while th ousands of consumers that endure Starbucks work hand in hand with the brand to generate new ideas for their products. According to Trusvo et al., 2009, 1.54 billion dollars was said to have been used to implement and support social media communications in 2008 and as such, social media growths is getting rather unlimited as investment on social media are estimated to increase to 3 billion dollars in the year 2013 (Kozinets et al., 2010). 70% internet users have been notice to trust judgements and evaluations of their fellow consumers on the social media platforms thus leaving brand generation and awareness at the mercy of social media users (Nielsen 2009).According to a survey conducted by Fishburn Hedges, more than third of UK consumers that constitute 36% are said to have engaged with companies brands through social media and this increase was driven by a common belief among 40% respondents that alter customer service is as a result social media when compared with just 7% of r espondents that believed that social media has a negative impact on customer service. Furthermore, 68% of respondents that have engaged with brands through social media have believed that through social media, their concerns and their wishes have been made known to their products and service provider and more than 65% respondent expressed that social media gives them a better chance to communicate with companies(David, 2012).Fishburn_image_1Figure 2 Usage pattern of social media among UK consumers (David, 2012).In the same vein, research conducted by YouGov Media, UK (2011) explained that the uptake and usage of social media services as a marketing tool remains favourably high among British public where Facebook is the social media site with a highest percentage of active users. 65% of online population in UK have Facebook with 95% of 16 to 20 years olds and 74% of 21-24 years old are frequently accessing Facebook social media site. The next social media site with the highest number of active users after Facebook is said to be YouTube that has 50% of all UK internet users while Twitter, Windows Live, LinkedIn, Google and Spotify have been surveyed to have 23%, 14%, 13%, 12% and 10% active online users one by one (YouGov,2012).Furthermore, study conducted among by Hiscox (2012) among entrepreneurs in UK found out that 57% of businesses use social media for marketing where 19% of these entrepreneurs use Facebook as their social media platform while 14% use linkedIn. The use of social media to support marketing efforts in UK is inherent in the fact that 53% of UK adults that use social networks follow a particular brands while 4 out of 5 internet users visit other social platforms as we as blogs.Also, in a study conducted by Jon (2011), 77% of UK 48.6 million adult were discovered to have an active Facebook profile, 15.5 million adult were investigated to be using Twitter account, 7.2 million adult use a photo sharing platform while 7.9 million UK adults use Lin kedIn. Facebook was discovered to be the most popular UK social networking site with 77% of all UK users having an active Facebook profile where 80% women constitute the population of active Facebook user compared to 72% of men.How Businesses use Social Media Hiscox InsuranceFigure 3 Usage pattern of social media among UK entrepreneurs (Hiscox 2012).Social Media Usage in UK infographic low res 2Figure 4 Social Media usage pattern depending on age and gender (Jon 2011).Examining the study conducted by Dirk (2011) that proposed that the increase in the number of active user of social media was as a result of the advent of smartphones, investigated that social networks are accessed by more than half of UK users through their phones almost everyday, suggesting that overall, 35% of he UK mobile UK mobile phone population use social networks from their phones where over 44% of mobile phone users in UK are estimated to be smartphone users.uk_mobilesocialsept10-11-1Figure 5 The Frequency of Social Networking site or Blog in UK (Dirk, 2011)2.4. ever-changing consumers attitude through Social mediaWord of mouth has been found to be an effective means through which consumers buy products and services. Take for example an active user of Facebook with 15,000 followers finds a product valuable to him and thus recommends such product to his 15,000 followers on the social media sites and these followers also recommend the product to their followers and thus create a huge awareness for such brand through these social media medium. With the advent of social media, news show of mouth and engagements which are effective means by which products are change have been facilitated by social media. Years ago companys sale representatives only had the not less than 5 interactions a day but in the social media age, companies have increased their individual customer interactions to 100 or more (Joan et al., 2010). Favoured brands may be promoted by consumers through positive comments on social media like Facebook or twitter pages or could be through uploading the video clips about such brand on YouTube. In the same vein, when consumers are not satisfied with a particular product, consumers could use the brands social media to register their feelings of unsatisfaction about the companys product on the brands social media forum. Findings made by Dellarocas et al., 2007 found out that consumers look out for recommendations concerning products and proceed to buy such product via the traditional channel such as offline stores (Heil et al., 2010). Social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc are been used by consumers to serve as an evaluation forums where products quality or service reviewed by other consumers that have experience with such products or services are used as a determining factor to determine whether such product or service would be purchased or not, and thus social media reduce uncertainty and improve efficiency of consumers online searc hes in products consumption process (Dwyer, 2007). Through social media, consumers have greatly influenced one another when making purchasing decisions where consumers ask one another for advice on these social media platform, mimicking and observing one anothers decision and relying on these recommendations from others before purchases are made (Hasan 2008). In a study conducted by IBM in Europe, more than half of Social media users in Britain, France, Italy and even Germany often check social networks before they make decision on purchasing or not purchasing a particular good or service. 35% of active Facebook users are discovered to use Facebook page to consult people for advices about products and services. In 40% of the situation, consumers procure such product they do probe on through the social media. Furthermore, studies have also proved that 56% of Facebook users that have become the follower of a particular brand are likely to recommend to their social network followers s uch brand they follow (ConversationGroup, 2012). According to MRY (Mr Young), during holiday sales, exchanges among friends, family and brands have a significantly direct influence on purchasing decision. Through Faceb